Alarm-controlling mechanism



A. P. HODGE.

ALARiM CONTROLLING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION" FILED MAY 3. I920.

Patented Nov. 15, 1921.

UNITED STATES ALBERT r. nonen, or wrus'rnn,

PATENT OFFICE.

I CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO L. GILBERT CLOCK COMPANY, OF *WINSTED, CONNECTICUT, A

CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

ALARlvI-CCNTROLLING MECHANISM.

Application filed May 3,

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT P. Home, a citizen of the United States, residing at llins'ted, Litchfield county, State of Connecticut, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Alarm-Controlling lvlechanisms, of which the following is a. full. clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to improvements in alarm controlling mechanisms and has for its object to provide a simple alarm controlling mechanism in which danger of blocking the time movement of the clock through the alarm control is eliminated. In alarm mechanisms as heretofore constructed, in which the alarm movement is checked by the action of a positively moved lever, there is danger of having the alarm escapement caught by the escapement wheel and become stalled in such a position as to block the movement of the lever. hen this occurs, the cam wheel which controls the lever and is operated by the time movement. in turn becomes blocked so as to cause the time movement to stop. In my improved alarm controlling mechanism this danger is eliminated. One feature by which I accomplish this result is by the use of a spring-actuated checking device for stopping the escapement and the employment of a lever which retracts this spring actuated device so as to move it out of escapement stopping position. .lVith this arrangement the lever which is positively moved by the alarm controlling cam cannot in any way be blocked by the alarm movement or any part thereof and cannot act to block the time movement. In other words, the lever which is operated by the alarm-set cam is always free to move whatever the condition of the alarm mechanism and the movement of that lever, which results in checking the alarm, permits the blocking of the alarm as distinguished from positively causing it. The stalling of the alarm mechanism is most liable to occur when the spring-driven alarm mechanism is nearly or fully unwound, but, although it is liable to occur mostly under such conditions. when it does occur it is a source of annoyance and leads the owner of the clock to believe that the clock as a whole is out of order.

The following is a description of my invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which,

Figure 1 shows a rear view of the clock Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 15, 1921.

1920. Serial No; 378,588.

mechanism with the alarm mechanism restrained;

F 2 is a side elevation of the same;

Fig. 3 is aplan elevation of the same;

Fig. i is a rear view of the same with the alarm mechanism released;

Fig. 5 is a skeleton view, part of the frame being in section. showing the relation of the cam wheel, release spring and lever controlled thereby;

6 is a detail of the rock-shaft which is adapted to engage and disengage the coir trolling lever of the alarm train;

Fig. 7 is a side elevation of the alarm-set spring and,

F 8 is a detail vi w of the intermediate lever acted upon by the alarm-set spring.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 1 is the usual clock frame carrying the time movement and the alarm movement. is the alarm cam wheel driven by the tin e mechanism and carrying the ordinary alarm cam S (o-acting with the pin 4 carried by the 'alarmset arbor 5. 6 is the alarm-set spring side of a lever 8 pivoted at 9. This lever 2 is normally held in engagement with the nose 7 by a spring 10 connected to the frame. 11 is a rock-shaft carrying an upper arm 12 and a lower arm 13, the lower arm 13 torming a stop tending to move into the path of? the tail wire or hammer stop wire 14 connected to the hammer 15 and escapement 16. 17 is the ordinary escapement wheel for 0s cillating the hammer 15 through the escapement 16. The lower end 13 of the rock-shaft 11 normally tends to move into the path of the tail wire 15 on account of the action of the straight spring wire 18 carried by the frame (Fig. 2). The strength of this spring 18 is such that its action can be overcome by the action of the spring 10. The upper arm 12 of the rock-shaft lies in the path of the lower end 19 of the lever 8.

The operation of the mechanism is as follows:

lVhen the upper end of the lever 8 is moved to the right under the action of the cam nose 7, as in Fig. 1. it permits the upper end 12 ot the rock-shaft 11 to move to the left under the action of the spring 18, with the result that the lower end 13 moves into the path of the tail wire 14, as shown in Fig. 1, so as to form a stop and block the action of the escapement and the hammer 15. l/Vhen, however, the upper end of the lever 8 moves to the left under the action of spring 10, it causes the lower end 13 of the rock-shaft 11 to move to'the position shown in Fig. 4 out of the path of the tail wire 14 so as to permit the hammer 15 to oscillate under the action of the escapement wheel 17.

From this it will be seen that the cam nose 7 never acts to move the lever 8 so as to cause it to positively block the hammer, but moves the lever 8 so as to permit the hammer to be blocked by the movement of the spring-actuated arm 13 of the rock-shaft 11. It will further be seen that the only stress which is ever put upon the lever 8, which has to be overcome by the time movement, is the slight stress due to the spring 10, which slight stress is not suflicient to interfere with the operation of the time movement.

When this mechanism is applied to an eight-day movement so that the actionof the alarm mechanism can be interrupted and stay interrupted for twenty-four'hours, I provide the additional lever 20 pivoted at 21 and tending to rise under the action of the spring 22 mounted on the frame. This lever 20 has a plate 23 adapted to be engaged bv a plunger 24 and forced downward there by. This lever has a pointed cam nose or dog 25 which is adapted to cam against the rounded upper end of the lever 8 and catch beneath the hook 26, Fig. 8. The camming action of this nose 25 upon the upper end of the lever 8 forces the lever 8 to the right, withdrawing its lower end 19 from the arm 12 of the ro ckshaft 11 and permitting the lower end 13 of that rock-shaft to move in the path of the tail wire 14 of the hammer and therefore stop the same. This provides a manually controlled stop. The nose 25 remains in engagement with the hook 26 until the cam nose 7 of the spring 6 takes control. which occurs after the wheel 2 with its cam 3 has moved about a quarter of a revolution. When this quarter movement has taken place, the-cam 7 has pressed the upper end of the lever 8 far enough to the right to cause book 26 to release the nose 25, whereupon the lever 20 is raised'by the spring 22 so as to beentirely disengaged from the lever 8; as shown in Fig. 4, whereupon the lever 8 is retained in position by the nose 7 so as to permit the rock-shaft 11 to continue to block the tail wire,'until the lever 8 is released. by

the release spring 6 and nose 7, at a time determined by the cam 3, so that the lower end fere with the action of the time train, whatever the condition of the alarm mechanism may be.

As will be evident to those skilled in the art, my invention permits of various modifications without de )artin from the s irit thereof or the scope of the appended claims. lVhat I claim is: r 1. In an alarm clock, the combination of time movement, an alarm movement, a stop for blocking said alarm movement, said stop tending to move to blocking position, means for retracting said blocking stop, and a cam controlled by said time movement for actu-' ating said means.

2. In an alarm cloclgthe combination of a time movement, an alarm movement, a stop for blocking said alarm movement, a sprin for moving said stop to blockin position, a lever for retracting said blockin stop against the. action of its spring, and an alarm-set spring and cam actuated by the time movement adapted to force said lever away from its retracting position.

3. In an alarm clock, the combination of a time movement, an alarm movement, two levers in series with one another constituting a compound lever between said two movements, one lever normally tending to engage the alarm movement to stop the same and the other lever being controlled by the time movement so as to permit said stop lever to act to stop said alarm movement during a given period and retract it from alarm-stopping position at the end of that period.

4. In an alarm clock, the combination of a time movement, an alarm movement, a stop for blocking said alarm movement, a spring for moving said stop to blocking position, a lever for retracting said blocking *stop against the action of its spring, an alarm-set spring and cam actuated by the time move ment and adapted to force said lever away from its retracting position, and a dog for moving and holding said leveraway from retracting position, said dog being released by the movement of said lever due to said alarm-set spring. ALBERT RHODGE. 

